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Ex-PM Dzurinda to advise Ukraine's Poroshenko on reforms

“I received the offer yesterday (March 31), and after a short consideration I decided to accept it,” Dzurinda, Slovak premier between 1998-2006, told the Teraz.sk website. The core of his work is to revolve around helping Ukraine undertake key political and economic reforms. “Ukraine wants to be part of the West, and is in need of major modernisation,” he said.

The story of Slovakia is inspirational in this regard, as the country overcame an uneasy period of economic transformation, Dzurinda said. “Ukraine needs to export, not only import, thereby increasing its competitiveness,” he added, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

Dzurinda also rejected notions that Ukraine has no chance of success. “The question is: do you stand up or lay down?” he explained. “It’s in the major interest for my homeland to have a stable, peaceful and predictable neighbour in Ukraine.”

Dzurinda’s former long-time aide, two-time deputy prime minister (1998-2002 and 2010-12) and, most importantly, two-time finance minister (2002-06 and 2010-12) Ivan Mikloš recently became an advisor to Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko and Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius. Both Dzurinda and Mikloš sit now as independent MPs in the Slovak Parliament after having left the Slovak Christian and Democratic Union (SDKÚ).

After the Agriculture Ministry lifted its embargo, it turned out that the companies of Italians suspected of ties with ’Ndrangheta received subsidies worth millions of euros, through the Agricultural Paying Agency.